BO DIDDLEY & BARACK OBAMA 08: Leaders We Can Live With!

“Now is the time to narrow the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our time.”
-- Barack Obama, 3/18/08

PROGRAM NOTE: Yesterday I got a call on my cell with a 906 area code. The young lady on the other end asked if I was Randall L. Tessier. Once assured that I was indeed Me…errr…me, she asked if The Mining Journal could publish an opinion piece I sent them on the sulfide mining issue. My request is that you Marquette minions let me know when it appears. Thank you.

What can you say about Bo Diddley? For that, I’ve brought in a guest opinion. I spoke with Eric Burdon on the phone last night, and he had this to say:

Now lets hear the story of Bo Diddley and
the Rock n Roll scene in general
Bo Diddley was born Ellas B. McDaniel in a place called McCoom,
Missississipi about 1926
He moved to Chicago about 1938
Where his name was eventually changed to Bo Diddley

He practiced the guitar everyday and sometimes into the night
Till his papa's hair began to turn white
His Pa said "Son, listen hear, I know
You can stay but that guitar has just gotta go"
So he pulled his hat down over his eyes
Headed out for them Western Skies
I think Bob Dylan said that
He hit New York City

He began to play at the Apollo in Harlem
Good scene there everybody raving
One day, one night, came a Cadillac with four head lights
Came a man with a big, long, fat, cigar said,
"C'mere son, I'm gonna make you a star"
Bo Diddley said, "Uh..whats in it for me?"
Man said, "Shut your mouth son , play the guitar and you just wait and see"

Well, that boy made it, he made it real big
And so did the rest of the rock n roll scene along with him
And a white guy named Johnny Otis took Bo Diddleys rhythm
He changed it into hand-jive and it went like this
In a little old country town one day
A little old country band began to play
Add two guitars and a beat up saxophone
When the drummer said, boy, those cats begin to roam
Oh baby oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll
Ya hear me oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll

Then in the U.S. music scene there was big changes made
Due to circumstances beyond our control such as payola
The rock n roll scene died after two years of solid rock and you got discs like, ah...
Take good care of my baby
Please don't ever make her blue and so forth

About, ah, one year later in a place called Liverpool in England
Four young lads with mop haircuts began to sing stuff like, ah...
It's been a hard days night and I've been working like a dog and so on
In a place called Richmond in Surrey, way down in the deep south
They got guys with long hair down their back singing
I wanna be your lover baby I wanna be your man yeah and all that jazz

Now we've been doing this number, Bo Diddley, for quite some time now
Bo Diddley visited this country last year
We were playing at the Club A Gogo in Newcastle, our home town
The doors opened one night and to our surprise walked in the man himself, Bo Diddley
Along with him was Jerome Green, his maraca man, and the Duchess, his gorgeous sister

And we were doing this number
Along with them came the Rolling Stones, the Mersey Beats,
They're all standing around diggin' it
And I overheard Bo Diddley talkin' He turned around to Jermone Green
And he said, "Hey, Jerome? What do you think these guys doin' our..our material?"
Jerome said, "Uh, where's the bar, man? Please show me to the bar..."
He turned around the Duchess And he said,
"Hey Duchess...what do you think of these young guys doin' our material?"
She said, "I don't know.
I only came across here to see the changin' of the guards and all that jazz."

Well, Bo Diddley looked up and said to me, with half closed eyes and a smile,
He said "Man," took off his glasses,
He said, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish I ever heard in my life..."

Hey Bo Diddley
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley

What can you say about Barack Obama? I though I’d phone up Barack and get his angle on things:

RT: Hello, Barack, wassup, it’s Me. Now that you’ve won the nomination, where are we headed?

BO: Hi Me, I knew it was you.
Here’s my thoughts on where we’re headed. We seek to continue the long march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I choose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together—unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction—towards a better future for our children and grandchildren.

Date:
Wed, 4 Jun 2008 06:47:52 -0700 [09:47:52 AM EDT]
From: Oni
To:
rlt@umich.edu
Subject: It's FUBAR time!

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FUBAR will be performing this Friday,June 6th at the Club Above(the Heidelberg) 6-9pm.
This dance party will be a benefit for Martha Behkne, who just lost her husband to cancer and her home to the Bank. All proceeds will go to Martha Behkne.

Fubar will also be performing at Top of the Park on July 2nd at 7pm.

On the 4th of July FUBAR will be hosting a special patriotic salute to Patriots at the Club Above's Friday Happy Hour, 6-9pm. Bring some sparklers that don't sparkle.

SPECIAL FLASH!
FUBAR will be performing at historic Legs Inn in Cross Village,Michigan on July 12th.
This rare northern concert will be coinciding with the FABULOUS Bliss Fest in Cross Village that is taking place that same weekend.
Come on up and rock out with FUBAR and enjoy one of Michigan's most beautiful areas!

ANN ARBOR NEWS 6/4/08

THIS CONCERT HAS A SPECIAL MEANING
Event will benefit late musician's family who lost their home

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

BY WILL STEWART
News Special Writer

Bill Behnke and Randy Tessier's friendship started 10 years ago with a new roof on Tessier's garage. Tessier hired Behnke, a longtime local builder, to do the work and the two - Behnke a blue-collar craftsman and Tessier an academic and well-known local musician - struck up a close friendship based in their shared love of music. Eventually, the two shared more than music, helping one another through health crises from which only one would survive.

On Friday, Tessier will say goodbye to his old friend when his band, FUBAR, performs a benefit concert for Behnke's family at the Heidelberg's Club Above. Last month, Behnke lost a long battle with lung cancer. His wife, Martha, has until July 9 to vacate their family's Pittsfield Township home after losing it to foreclosure when Bill Behnke became unable to work during his sickness. Soon after the diagnosis, Tessier organized a benefit show at the Pittsfield Grange Hall to help the Behnkes, who already were struggling to pay their bills. Friday's show, he said, will bookend that initial benefit, while providing a fitting, musical send-off for his old friend. "It was just a spur-of-the-moment decision to do it as a benefit,'' Tessier said of Friday's happy-hour show. "But it just makes sense to do it as a final benefit for a really special family.''

For Tessier, losing to cancer hits especially close to home. "After Bill found out he was sick, I'd go over there and ask him what it was like to have cancer,'' Tessier recalled. "Little did I know I was about to find out myself. "It's the ironies in life that really strike you.'' Last year, Tessier was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, for which he received chemotherapy. It has eliminated the cancer, but ravaged Tessier's body to the point that he was barely able to keep up with a busy schedule of gigs with FUBAR and George Bedard and the Kingpins, for which Tessier has played bass for more than 20 years.

"I'm back to about 95 percent, but it's taken a while,'' said Tessier, whose natural irreverence fades only slightly when discussing the grim details of both Behnke's death and his own health issues. "There's no sign of cancer, and I'm hoping it doesn't come back.''
Tessier's FUBAR bandmates have agreed to donate their earnings from the show, which runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Heidelberg, 215 N. Main St. Admission is just $2 and a pitcher will be passed for additional donations during each of the band's two sets. "I'm really hoping we can draw a typically enthusiastic Ann Arbor music crowd,'' Tessier said. "A crowd that loves music and is concerned with this family that has been through all kinds of sickness and hell over the past few years.''